Attributes
__NOEDITSECTION__Your character’s most basic strengths and weaknesses are defined by six “attributes” — Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma — each of which begins with a score of 8 to 18. Your character’s attribute scores begin at 8 each. You may spend 36 points to increase these scores, as shown on Table 1.1: Attribute Scores. Example: Kevin uses his 36 points to purchase a Strength of 13 (6 points), a Dexterity of 15 (11 points), a Constitution of 11 (3 points), an Intelligence of 12 (4 points), a Wisdom of 12 (4 points), and a Charisma of 14 (8 points). Assign the highest scores to the attributes that represent your character’s strengths and the lowest scores to the attributes that represent his weaknesses. Keep in mind that certain attributes are more important than others for certain classes, and that your Origin often adjusts one or more of them as well (see Table 1.2: Origin Benefits, page 19). Your character’s attribute scores rise as you gain Career Levels and may rise or fall due to events that happen during your game. After all adjustments are made to your attribute scores, refer to Table 1.1 to determine your character’s attribute modifiers. A positive modifier is called a bonus, while a negative modifier is called a penalty. These are used in a variety of ways, as described in the following sections. Strength '(Str)' Strength measures your character’s physical power and musculature. This attribute is especially valuable to a character who wants to be skilled with hand-to-hand combat or use heavy weapons with high recoil. Your character’s Strength modifier is applied to: *Melee and unarmed attack checks. *Damage rolls made when your character successfully attacks using his bare hands or a melee weapon, and sometimes a hurled weapon (though never an explosive, such as a grenade). *Overcoming the recoil penalties of powerful weapons. *Acrobatics, Athletics, and Intimidate skill checks for which Strength is the key attribute. Dexterity '(Dex)' Dexterity measures your character’s hand-eye coordination, reflexes, agility, and balance. This attribute is especially valuable to a character who wants to be good at driving or skilled with firearms. Your character’s Dexterity modifier is applied to: *Ranged attack checks, including those made with firearms and hurled weapons. *Initiative checks made at the beginning of combat to determine the order in which actions occur. *Base Defense, provided that your character can react to the attack. *Reflex saving throws, which are made to avoid expected explosions, hurled acid, and similar attacks, to prevent stand offs and taking delayed attacks against teammates and allies, and to instinctively circumvent other pitfalls. *Acrobatics, Blend, Drive, Sleight of Hand, and Sneak skill checks for which Dexterity is the key attribute. Constitution '(Con)' Constitution determines your character’s health and toughness. A character’s wound points are initially equal to his Constitution score, so this attribute is important for everyone, but it’s especially valuable to a character who wants to sustain great physical abuse before he goes down. Your character’s Constitution modifier is applied to: *The number of vitality points your character gains each time he rises in level. Special Note: A Constitution penalty never reduces the vitality points gained during any single level increase below 1 (i.e. a character always gains at least 1 vitality point each time he gains a level). *Fortitude saving throws, which are made to stay awake a long time and resist contagions, critical injuries, and many types of damage. *The amount of subdual damage your character may sustain before he must make Fortitude saves to avoid falling unconscious. *The length of time your character may hold his breath. *Athletics and Resolve skill checks for which Constitution is the key attribute. Intelligence '(Int)' Intelligence represents your character’s ability to learn and reason. This attribute is especially valuable to a character who wants a wide variety of skills. Your character’s Intelligence modifier is applied to: *The number of skill points your character gains each time he rises in level. Special Note: ''An Intelligence penalty never reduces the number of skill points gained during any single level increase below 1 (i.e. a character always gains at least 1 skill point each time he gains a level). *The number of skill focuses your character gains at Level 1. ''Special Note: An Intelligence penalty never reduces the number of skill focuses you possess. *Knowledge checks made to determine whether your character is familiar with something that you, the player, are not. *Analysis, Computers, Cultures, Electronics, Falsify, Mechanics, Medicine, Science, Search, and Security skill checks for which Intelligence is the key attribute. Wisdom '(Wis)' Wisdom measures your character’s willpower, common sense, intuition, and perception. This attribute is especially valuable to a character who wants a handle on the world around him. Your character’s Wisdom modifier is applied to: *Will saving throws, which are critical during interrogation, brainwashing, and other activities that test the character’s determination and discipline. *Gear checks, which are made to gain Common Items in the field. *The amount of stress damage your character may sustain before he must make Will saves to avoid cracking under the pressure (see page 339). *Analysis, Electronics, Falsify, Intimidate, Investigation, Manipulate, Mechanics, Medicine, Networking, Notice, Resolve, Sense Motive, Streetwise, Survival, and Tactics skill checks for which Wisdom is the key attribute. Charisma '(Cha)' Charisma determines your character’s attractiveness, personality, persuasiveness, and guile. This attribute is especially valuable to a character who wants to lead, trick, or seduce others. Your character’s Charisma modifier is applied to: *The number of gear picks your character gains during the Intel Phase of each mission (see pages 211–212). *Your character’s Wealth, which determines his Lifestyle, Possessions, and Spending Cash (see pages 211 and 215). *Request checks, which are made to gain gear picks in the field. *The limit of Joint Actions and many other activities involving multiple characters (including cooperation with most skill checks). *Blend, Bureaucracy, Impress, Investigation, Manipulate, Networking, Profession, Sense Motive, Sneak, Streetwise, Survival, and Tactics skill checks for which Charisma is the key attribute. Changing Attribute Scores Certain events may increase or decrease your character’s attribute scores during the course of play, as follows. *A character gains 1 additional attribute point at Levels 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20. *Chemical boosters and other effects can temporarily increase a character’s attribute scores. These bonus attribute points usually wear off quickly, per the rules for each effect. *Contagions, critical injuries, special attacks, and other effects can temporarily or permanently decrease a character’s attribute points. Temporary “attribute damage” is healed in full at the end of each mission, and potentially with surgery (see page 142). Permanent attribute damage, however, remains forever unless healed with surgery. When an attribute score changes, all statistics associated with it change accordingly, except for skill points and focuses (which remain no matter how Intelligence is later affected). Example: Kevin suffers 3 points of Dexterity damage, which reduces his score from 16 to 13. His Dexterity modifier drops from +3 to +2, which reduces his current ranged attack check bonus, Initiative check bonus, Defense, and Reflex save bonus by 1 each. Should one or more of a character’s attributes drop to 0 or below, he suffers the following devastating effects. Strength: The character becomes , , and , though he may still speak. Dexterity: The character becomes , though he may still speak. Constitution: The character immediately . Intelligence: '''The character becomes and incapable of higher thought. '''Wisdom: The character’s sanity slips and he becomes either or (50% chance of becoming either every 2d10 minutes). If the character is , or becomes or , the current condition lasts for double the standard amount of time. Charisma: The character falls into a coma, becoming . Temporary bonuses that boost one or more of a character’s attribute modifiers — e.g. those granted by character options or gear — provide all benefits of the higher score or modifier, except for increased skill points (from Intelligence). For example, a temporary Constitution boost may provide additional wounds and vitality points. This can present a problem if the effect wears off or the character suffers attribute damage that reduces his vitality or wound points to below 0. This has the following effects. *If a character’s vitality points are reduced to below 0, he suffers an amount of subdual damage equal to the difference between 0 and his current vitality points, and his vitality points are set to 0 (in that order). *If a character’s wound points are reduced to below 0, he suffers an amount of stress damage equal to the difference between 0 and his current wound points, his wound points are set to 0, and he falls (in that order). Attribute Checks Unlike most d20 products, Spycraft 2.0 does not call for attribute checks (i.e. checks made solely by adding an attribute modifier to a die roll). Most attribute checks from Spycraft 1.0 are now either skill checks or saving throws, and the rest are handled with alternate rules. In fact, most NPCs don’t even possess attribute scores, which alleviates the hassle of producing NPC statistics and using them in play (see page 443). Category:Character Rules